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Press Statement Reference: Rev. Fr. Rex Reyes
June 3, 2008 Secretary General, National Council of
Churches in the Philippines (NCCP)
Head of UPR Watch Delegation
Mobile Nos. +63918 944 7538; +4177 251 0560
UN RAPPORTEUR Alston STANDS BY HIS FINDINGS ON PHILIPPINE KILLINGS
Philippine NGO delegation aghast at the open-faced arrogance of the
Philippine government at the 8th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, 03 June 2008 - "I am simply being faithful in playing
my role as an honest broker," this was the response of Prof. Philip
Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary
executions, to the statement of Ambassador Erlinda F. Basilio of the
Philippine Mission to the UN calling Alston's report "inaccurate, highly
selective and biased.”
Alston was one of the first UN special rapporteurs who gave their reports
to the 8th session of the UN Human Rights Council which runs on June 2-20,
2008. He stood by his findings that so many of the cases remained
unexplained, that only a few cases have been prosecuted and that there has
been no conviction of military personnel involved so far. Mr. Alston
reiterated that on the issue of the number and characterization of the
killings, the methodology used by the Philippine government was defective.
After Alston’s report, the Philippine Mission in Geneva submitted a 6-page
statement lambasting and vilifying the report as well as Prof. Philip
Alston himself. Practically ignoring the extraordinarily harsh Philippine
reply, Alston was happy to note that the general response of Philippine
society to his report was favorable and that human rights defenders have
continued to commend and make reference to his report and recommendations.
The Philippine UPR Watch delegation here was astonished at the continuing
denials, twisting of facts, unabashed namecalling and even ad hominem
arguments of the Philippine Mission to the conclusions and observations of
Prof. Alston. The delegation, composed of Fr. Rex Reyes of the NCCP, Marie
Hilao Enriquez of Karapatan, Atty. Edre Olalia of NUPL, Dr. Edith Burgos
of Desaparecidos, Donnie Mapanao of Migrante-Switzerland, Trisha Garvida
of Karapatan and union leader Ed Cubelo, expressed disbelief at the rehash
of worn out and discredited explanations as well as the highly exaggerated
claims on the effectivity of the Philippine government’s efforts to
address the killings.
At a side event entitled, "Confronting Extrajudicial Killings: Promoting
Life and Human Rights: The Situation in the Philippines," Prof. Alston
said he was honored to participate in some small way to the efforts to
stop extrajudicial killings in the Philippines. He went on to happily note
the drop in the number of extrajudicial killings since he began his
mission in the Philippines. Alston said that, “The decrease in number
while a cause to congratulate, is likewise a cause to condemn because it
merely shows clearly who are behind the extrajudicial killings.” #
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